Trump has his theories on Beirut blasts

Prez says explosion looks like a ‘terrible attack caused by a bomb’

OVER 100 DEAD; 4,000 WOUNDED; 300,000 DISPLACED

Residents of Beirut awoke to a scene of utter devastation on Wednesday, a day after a massive explosion at the port sent shock waves across the Lebanese capital.

An official with the Lebanese Red Cross says at least 100 people were killed and more than 4,000 wounded in the massive explosion in Beirut on Tuesday.

Also, around 300,000 people became homeless as a result of the recent powerful explosion in the port of Beirut in Lebanon, the city's Governor Marwan Abboud, said on Wednesday.

Meanwhile, President Donald Trump said US military generals have told him that they "seem to feel" the massive explosion that rocked Beirut on Tuesday, killing more than 100 people people, was a "terrible attack" likely caused by a bomb.

I met with some of our great generals and they just seem to feel that it was. This was not a - some kind of a manufacturing explosion type of a event. ... They seem to think it was a attack. It was a bomb of some kind, yes." Trump offered condolences to the victims and said the United States stood ready to assist Lebanon. "It looks like a terrible attack," he said.

Fireworks and ammonium nitrate appear to have been the fuel that ignited a massive explosion that rocked the Lebanese capital of Beirut, experts and videos of the blast suggest.

The scale of the damage - from the epicentre of the explosion at the port of Beirut to the windows blown out kilometres (miles) away - resembles other blasts involving the chemical compound commonly used as an agricultural fertilizer.

But the compound itself typically doesn't detonate on its own and requires another ignition source. That likely came from a fire that engulfed what initially appeared to be fireworks that were stored at the port.

Online videos of the disaster's initial moments show sparks and lights inside the smoke rising from the blaze, just prior to the massive blast.